Endocrine disruptors can not only impair the development of the male reproductive organs and spermiogenesis, but also the development of gender-specific male behaviour, which raises the question of social consequences. A major source of these disruptors is plastic food packaging, which should possibly be replaced by glass containers.
Worldwide, sperm quality and sperm count have been declining since 1950, initially by 1 per cent per year, now accelerating to 2 per cent. We are at less than half of the initial values and Switzerland is particularly badly affected. Influencing factors such as stress, alcohol excesses and nicotine can hardly explain this, because they have always been present, and mobile phones, which are also blamed, were only introduced decades later. One factor that has certainly increased is obesity, possibly also lack of exercise.
On the other hand, there is increasing evidence against hormone-active environmental chemicals, the so-called ‘endocrine disruptors’. Important representatives are phthalates, i.e. plasticisers, which are found in almost all plastics and find their way into food from plastic packaging. They are also present in many cosmetics, even in sun protection products for children. Their ring structure is related to the structure of sex hormones and they block the effect of testosterone.
Endocrine disruptors and gonads
In animal experiments, phthalates inhibit the first increase in testosterone in the male embryo in early pregnancy, after which they impede the development of the testicles and later spermiogenesis. Apparently, the embryo is particularly sensitive. Affected males have a reduced distance between the genitals and anus after birth and into adulthood. This distance would normally be much greater in males than in females and is a measure of how much testosterone has affected the embryo. According to this criterion, phthalates also weaken the testosterone effect.
Prof Shanna Swan, New York, found several indications that phthalates also play a role in humans (1): Men with sperm deficiency have a reduced anogenital distance. Boys from mothers with increased phthalate exposure also have a reduced anogenital distance (the babies studied are now entering adulthood and their spermiogenesis is currently being investigated). Again, the smaller distance indicates a reduced testosterone effect during pregnancy with feminisation of the male phenotype. In fact, we should speak of mild chemical castration in the womb.
The suspicion of chemical disruptors is reinforced by further evidence. In the USA, 30 per cent of women have a critical phthalate exposure. However, it is not only phthalates that are incriminated, but also pesticides, fire retardants and even simple painkillers. For the most part, these are barely degradable ‘forever chemicals’ that are present everywhere in the environment, the body and even breast milk. Even if limit values for individual substances are not reached, the combination can have a harmful effect in animal experiments. And what is particularly worrying is that the effect of these substances on spermiogenesis increases over several generations.
In addition to the decline in sperm, an increase in testicular dysgenesis, undescended testicles and testicular cancer has also been observed in humans. The findings in animals also suggest a role for the disruptors here.
There are countless reports of chemically induced sexual differentiation and behavioural disorders in the animal kingdom, which cannot be discussed further here.
To summarise, there is urgent and almost seamless evidence that phthalates and other endocrine disruptors can also disrupt testicular development and subsequent spermiogenesis in humans from early pregnancy onwards. Exposure began in 1950 with the introduction of plastic and other chemical agents and appears to be increasing.
Endocrine disruptors and male behaviour
If endocrine disruptors in early pregnancy have an inhibitory effect on the development of male genitalia, what does this mean for behaviour?
Testosterone influences male behaviour in late pregnancy, characterised, for example, by a preference for ball games, cars and weapons over dolls. Testosterone also slows down speech development in boys and later in life it promotes muscle development, muscle strength, libido, potency, dominance, aggressiveness and territorial behaviour.
Observations on male infants and young chimpanzees prove that phthalates actually change sexual-typical behaviour: if they normally prefer to play with toy cars rather than dolls, this is reversed under phthalates, and at the same time the language development of these boys is accelerated in a similar way to that of girls.
A look at society
If phthalates inhibit the physical and psychological development of men by inhibiting the effect of testosterone, social repercussions are also to be expected.
In fact, there have been several developments within the last two generations that were initially difficult to understand, but which would all be compatible with a weakened testosterone effect:
- We did military service with conviction in 1960 (even if we hated its stupidity). Only later emerged the crying recruits who couldn't imagine shooting, then came the increase in conscientious objectors, civilian service and the army abolition initiative and now there is talk about our "postheroic" age (remember that boys prefer to play with dolls rather than weapons when the testosterone effect is blocked). In view of the Third Reich, the suppressed Hungarian uprising and the Prague Spring, this seemed nothing but naïve to us older people, a view that has only become acceptable again since the war in Ukraine.
- It seemed puzzling that Germany allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees into the country from 2015 onwards without even attempting to establish their identity and origin. No wonder there were many North African petty criminals among them. In this context, it is worth remembering that testosterone controls territorial behaviour.
- It was equally puzzling that hundreds of migrants were able to molest hundreds of German girls and women on Cologne Cathedral Square in 2016 without the German men who were also present intervening. In the Swiss poet's Gotthelf day (1797-1854), that would have resulted in a full-scale brawl. Did the lack of an aggressive response mean a lack of testosterone?
- While the world was clearly divided into boys and girls in my youth, the younger generation seems to be increasingly confused about gender roles and affiliations, with endless gender discussions and an increase in gender dysphoria and gender reassignment. According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung the Swiss Young Socialists have even become a hetero-free zone, and non-binary voices are piling up, wanting recognition and representation. It cannot be denied that this is exactly what we would expect if we were to expose our offspring to substances that weaken or distort the effects of hormones.
- The woke and cancel culture has always been a mystery to me. It always seemed to me that it was not only a chivalrous but above all a highly interesting duty to deal with opposing points of view and to measure oneself against them. It makes you grow, sometimes you can learn or even come to an agreement. Yes, the woman's weapon is offended withdrawal of love, but such refusal to talk is cowardly and unmanly behaviour. Is there a lack of testosterone here too?
- Besides the blurring of gender definitions many sources and countries also report about declining sexual interest: More people are voluntarily or involuntarily living without a partner. Lonely Japanese men are making do with rented families and Japanese women are marrying themselves. Testosterone not only activates a man's sexual interest, but the small amounts of testosterone produced by women are also essential for their libido and sexual sensitivity. And phthalates have been proven to disrupt both.
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| Peter Kaunzer / Keystone |
Beyond testosterone
The abnormalities go beyond the sperm and the testosterone effect.
For decades, an earlier puberty in girls has been observed worldwide. And it's not just men, women are also becoming less fertile. Breast cancer is on the rise, affecting one in eight women, and endometriosis one in ten. Here too, epidemiological data incriminates endocrine disruptors with oestrogen and progesterone activity, namely certain phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides and hair dyes.
Sensitive nervous system
The endocrine system seems almost primitive compared to the central nervous system: but the central nervous system also only develops through the functioning of its connections by means of transmitters. Certain pesticides interfere as neurotoxins with these very neurotransmitters and their role in Parkinson's disease has been epidemiologically documented many times. And the now banned polychlorinated biphenyls even caused learning difficulties.
There were 60 children in my father's primary school class and 32 in mine. There were no disciplinary problems, whereas today a teacher often can no longer master a class of 17 pupils without the help of school psychologists and permanent special counsellors. Autism, behavioural disorders and perhaps also ADHD seem to be on the rise. In addition to air pollution, certain pesticides (organochlorines, organophosphates, pyrethroids), PCBs and again phthalates are incriminated.
Is there a need for action?
Dwindling sperm is male contraception, just what our overburdened planet needs. Perhaps too late, but still. And if mild testosterone blocking curbs toxic masculinity and senseless militarism, you can't be against it. It is understandable that the non-binary and LBQT community do not want to be medicalised and pathologised, but rather recognised, and we can laugh about the woke and cancel culture. Until herede, there is no obvious need for action.
I becomes more disturbing is when girls have to menstruate with eleven, at a time when they are still far from being physically and mentally ready to become women. Here, our thoughtless poisoning of the environment could mean a sort of inhumane rape of our own children.
It is also disturbing when environmental toxins contribute to an increase in testicular cancer, breast cancer and possibly endometriosis, all public health problems of the first order.
It is downright scary that environmental toxins could disrupt the structure and function of our brain, our attention and our social behaviour, even outside of sexuality. What will become of our schools, what will happen to fair play, good faith, law and order? The foundations of state and society are being called into question.
First step: glass
For thirty years, these substances have been monitored and regulated, mostly tolerated, sometimes banned and replaced by substitutes, some of which later turned out to as be harmful. For our authorities, there is a lack of direct evidence in humans and, moreover, sufficient action has been taken with success (2).
However, direct evidence will always be lacking because it is not possible to carry out experiments on humans, and the continuing progression of sperm loss proves that the problem is by no means solved.
The French parliament recently compared endocrine disruptors to the asbestos scandal and decided on far-reaching bans.
Since the main contamination comes from plastic food packaging, many experts recommend switching to glass, e.g. Prof. Shanna Swan, but also the former director of the Basel Centre for Applied Human Toxicology Prof. M. Wilks (3). But the consumer has no choice. For example, out of hundreds of dairy products at COOP, only one is available in glass and not even in all shops. And Migros is lagging behind as always without an offer.
The large Austrian dairy cooperative ‘Berglandmilch’ has been proving since 2017 that it would be possible to switch to glass. In addition to recycled glass, energy-saving reusable glass is also an option, for which the infrastructure is already in place in Switzerland at the company Univerre. The switch to glass would be possible through consumer pressure alone and without government intervention.
And the politicians?
Politicians are acting half-heartedly: bisphenols in baby bottles have been banned, as have phthalates in children's toys, but this has little logic since the main damage occurs in early pregnancy. Moreover, phthalates are still found in imported toys, as well as in many children's sunscreens and cosmetics anyway.
Moreover, limit values are only ever set for individual substances, even though we know that the combination of individual harmful substances in ‘safe’ doses is still harmful, and even though we know that the damage accumulates over generations.
It is almost comical how the political right on both sides of the Atlantic is campaigning against the ‘woke culture’, after the same right has ensured that the poisoning continues unhindered, for example in Switzerland with their fight against the initiatives for clean drinking water or against pesticides, or in the USA through Trump's obstruction and dismantling of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The woke and cancel culture feeds back on the problem in that poltitcal correctness does not even allow a discussion: The Zürich Tages-Anzeiger newspaper refused the publication of such considerations in an opinion piece as ‘far-fetched’, and the Schweizerische Ärzte-Zeitung rejected a similar article after consulting the Advisory Board without further explanation.
References:
1. Shanna Swan, Count Down, Scribner, 2021.
2. 2. Factsheet Phtalate des BAG, May 2021: https://www.bag.admin.ch/dam/bag/de/dokumente/chem/themen-a-z/factsheet-phthalate.pdf.download.pdf/factsheet-phthalate_de.pdf
3. 3.. In unser Essen gelangen Mikroplastik und Weichmacher: Sollten wir deshalb auf Behälter aus Kunststoff verzichten? Interview mit Prof.M.Wilks, Neue Zürcher Zeitung vom 24.1.2024: https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/der-toxikologe-bewahrt-seine-lebensmittel-lieber-in-glas-als-in-kunststoff-auf-sollten-wir-alle-verpackungen-aus-plastik-vermeiden-ld.1773334
More references available from: LFierz@sunrise.ch
